pdm1974

8 minutes ago, Dylan said:

 

If it is renewed, how do you think it'll be aired? I don't think it'll be 5 days anymore.

I would be fine with 30 minute episodes and maybe 4 times a week. A smaller cast that you could use more often would help with storytelling, too. When actors are only used for their small guarantees it results in stories losing momentum with constant starts and stops. I think the DiMeras take up waaaay too much time at this point. I'd be fine with them just keeping Chad, Johnny, and bring back Theo since he's a DiMera and Carver. The show desperately needs a new crop of younger characters as well. I'd cut characters I feel have been played out: Rafe, Ava, Nicole, Eric, Stefan/Jake, Roman, Shawn, Belle...and dare I say, Steve and Kayla. I'd make them recurring characters. I'd refocus on the Hortons/Carvers/Kiriakis families: Lucas, Will, Allie, bring back Jack, Jennifer, JJ, and Eli and Lani, Sonny, maybe Alex, and Xander and have Abe, Maggie, Julie, Doug as the foundation/vets of the show. I'd also keep Kate just because. 

This is such a missed opportunity. They should have announced this months ago, and planned an "NBC finale" episode. The people that have been watching it on TV for decades deserved that. They could have brought back some old faves at the end and gotten a little boost to the ratings as all the other shows got when they started to end. Then, mostly wrap things up and leave the viewers with a couple of cliffhangers, sort of what was attempted with AMC and the move to PP. After that, reboot the show on Peacock. Smaller cast, better production values, more modern storytelling (for the sake of God, no more masks, Dr. Rolf bringing everybody back from the dead, etc) while still retaining enough of the show to pull in some of the older viewers while attempting to attract new ones on Peacock for the reboot. But, oh well.

I figured this was coming eventually, but I'm shocked at the amount of notice they're giving viewers to make the transition. They should have had time to do a big NBC send-off on broadcast and do some major cliffhangers to get people to transition. It doesn't seem like they're going to get that UNLESS they knew about this months ago which I doubt.

I'm reading that Peacock is floundering. They're stuck at 13 million subscribers and not increasing. If DAYS has been streaming well, I can see them doing this to get some sort of bump in their subscriber base. But, I really question how many viewers will PAY for the show at this point. If they were going to stream it for free to get people to the app, I'd be a little more hopeful. It sort of feels like execs are throwing things at the wall to justify Peacock. This many streamers is not viable in the long run. People are only going to pay for so many subscriptions. And, if DAYS doesn't give them the bump they need, I'm sure the show is on the way out.

The hopeful part of me thinks that this could be a way to modernize the show, its storytelling, and its writing. The Beyond Salem seasons have been much richer and interesting than the mother show. Will they allow the show to be more daring in its storytelling? But, if they're already 8 months ahead, that's way off, and it may be too late to change course in time. Unless....they knew this was coming, which, again, I doubt. I would welcome a smaller cast, stories that feel more "today" and for God's sake, less of this Dr. Rolf/mask wearing/constantly coming back from the dead crap. After a while, no story has consequences as a result.

On 5/29/2022 at 6:24 AM, Liberty City said:

S2 E211 (452) is the introduction of Darlene Conley (Sally Spectra). Airdate January 17, 1989! Fantastic!

For me, she's what really made the show must see. She was just superb in the role. The Logans as a family just weren't working, and the Spectras gave that contrast to the Forresters. I'm still mad over Macy being killed....twice!

On 7/17/2022 at 7:43 PM, Tonksadora said:

Neither VW nor Beverlee McKinsey ever got an Emmy and if ever two could be named deserving it is the two of them! It was told to me that the year Irene Daly won hers, VW & Bev split the vote & left the dark horse spot for Daly to waltz through. I dunno but it could be.

Does anyone remember what storyline Irene Daly submitted for her reel that year? By the time I had started watching, she'd become a supporting character and "Aunt Liz."

On 7/16/2022 at 9:47 AM, Beach Climber said:

I didn’t mind Cruz/Eden but I didn’t find them compelling to watch either. They were too saccharine for me and it did seem like Eden was destined to be a messier character when she first debuted so I got bored with her after a while. When it came to the show’s bigger pairings, Mason/Julia, Lionel/Augusta, and Keith/Gina were much more fun to watch for me. 

I enjoyed Cruz and Eden, but the show put way too many of their eggs in that basket. So, that when the actors left they couldn't fill the void.

On 7/13/2022 at 1:17 PM, Taoboi said:

And Adam AGAIN doing a revenge because he feels unloved. AGAIN? Ugh.

Everything with the Newmans feels been there and done that...over and over. I'm sooooo tired of these corporate takeover stories on this show. I really don't care who's running Newman Chancellor Winters Yada Yada Enterprises this week.

Susan Walters has done miracles in making me care some about the show again. But, she can only do so much!

The Imani story has promise and those characters desperately need some sort of conflict.

 I like the idea of the character of Allie, but she needs some sort of an edge. Too much goody-goody nowhere, and a romance with Noah is Snoresville. The show badly needs characters that aren't Newmans or Abotts so they don't have to date each other!

But, that's been the problem with Y&R for so long now. It's as if the writers AVOID having conflict.

2 hours ago, Taoboi said:

 

And don't tell me that Eric and Donna get back together and everyone is happy with no issues. Now that I mind seeing Liam in his swim trunks.

I hope not. That would be way too easy and would leave Quinn and Carter without much to do. If I were writing it, I would have Quinn turn up pregnant with a late in life pregnancy (If Sally Spectra can have a baby at 55, why not?) and the father be Eric. That could throw the whole Quinn/Carter/Eric/Donna quad back up in the air again.

Zach Tinker is so damn adorable.

It's definitely DAYS fault concerning CM. I'm sure he'd still be there if they hadn't written him off the last time. The show has sort of done it to itself by having one half of so many couple off contract. It's hard to write for the one who remains. As much as I like AS, they need to pivot from Sami permanently and open both EL and Lucas up for new storylines. Poor Lucas deserves a break for a change. I know he kidnapped Sami, but she's done a million times worse over the years. I still like Cady as Jennifer. I wish we could keep her full-time. I feel like so many Hortons have been written off lately.

4 minutes ago, Tonksadora said:

I read it & I loved it but I kept waiting for her to talk about Rachel & Ada as parallels to Erica & Mona. Disappointed. 

And, of course, we got the parallel with Rachel & Ada/ Erica & Mona/ and Ava & Kate on Loving. Agnes really enjoyed the rebel daughter and her long-suffering mother.

6 hours ago, Vee said:

Are they really expecting the audience to go with it on Gwen after she told people what, last week? that she intentionally killed Laura Horton?

I feel like Gwen had so much promise in the beginning, and I actually found her a little fascinating. But, the past year has not been kind to this character story-wise.

On 5/11/2022 at 11:51 AM, Antoyne said:

Gosh getting rid of Chelsea in the crash too would’ve just been too perfect.

I, too, have never gotten the point of Chelsea. The only story that MIGHT be interesting with her is that if they brought in a teenaged Johnny who finds out that Victoria is not his mother after all and what the fallout could be. God knows Faith and Moses haven't set the teen scene on fire. Bringing in an aged Lucy, a mini-Phyliss, who messes up the other teen's lives would be great, too, as would be a return with Daniel.

Lily and Billy are snoozeville. Don't even get me started on that podcast!!

11 hours ago, Darn said:

I love the silver on Christian LeBlanc but he desperately needs a haircut. I also love the streak of gray in Susan Walters hair, she looks amazing honestly.

I wouldn't say that the writing is completely where it needs to be, but Susan Walters is definitely bringing it and has injected some much-needed life into this show. I hope they can figure out how to keep her long-term. And, I have to say I think Susan Walter's looks FABULOUS. Unlike (cough, cough) some other actors that have had waaaaay too much work done, she looks like a woman who has aged gracefully and well. It's so refreshing to see!

I've watched the show all 5 seasons, and I have to admit that season 5 has been quite boring. I thought the first two seasons were actually pretty good with OMG shocking twist. But, the last couple of seasons they seemed to really be struggling to decide what kind of show it was supposed to be. Some episodes came off more "sitcom" than "soap" and it began to feel more episodic than "soap" as well.

EG has been amazing as Fallon and has spun gold out of some pretty bad storyline. A home shopping network for Fallon? Is this 1985??? 

EH has done an admirable job with Alexis, but the writing never presented her as much of a threat to Blake and Kristal. She was more of a joke.

I never got Adam's purpose. He's creepy and weird...and??? What's the point of him? Again, he also comes off as more of a joke.

I loved Sam, but I'm so disappointed they wrote off Steven and never brought him back. Sam has never had a story as good as when the two of them were going back and forth.

Kristal #3 has been the best, but they didn't really even give her a strong storyline. Even the double story could have gone much further. The double SHOULD have slept with Blake, and he should have grown closer to her.

Amanda and Kirby had some potential this season though.

I'm hoping production had enough notice to at least wrap things up after 5 seasons.

I do think the cast as a whole was very good, but the writing never matched their talents.

6 minutes ago, carolineg said:

@NoelI am pretty sure John/Marlena's house is the actual same set as Kayla/Steve's just decorated/shot different.  I could be wrong though.

I'm sure you're right. DAYS loves to redress a set. Remember the "blue room" that was used over and over and over as everything?

4 hours ago, j swift said:

I think it is one of the best denouement of a show, but in the end it was the timeslot, changing tastes, not the creative choices that killed The City

It is kind of miraculous that ABC ran LOVING for as many years as they did. I wonder how much of it was "what else are we going to run against Y&R anyway?" and Agnes Nixon's pull (assuming she still had it at that point). I read her autobiography, and I thought it was strange that she NEVER mentioned Loving at all. Of course, she wrote tons about creating AMC and OLTL and her start in soaps, but not one word about Loving. It would have been interesting to get her viewpoint on why it never took off like her other creations. You can't say the show was a total flop. It ran for over a decade, and I'm sure money was made.

7 hours ago, Soaplovers said:

And one of the fallouts with Marty's role in the Billy story was that when she was gang raped by the frat brothers...her credibility was questioned due to her past history of lying...and it led to a 'wait until dark ' cat and mouse story between Todd and his attorney Nora (who got him off partly due to using Marty's past history against her in the trial).

The plotting for Marty's rape was very well-conceived, too. I found the graphicness of the plot hard to stomach at times, but in terms of plotting an arc for multiple characters, it was genius. I remember reading an interview with Michael Malone where he said he took the approach that the town of Llanview was actually the main character of the show. I think his experience as a novelist helped in terms of creating these large umbrella stories.

3 hours ago, Vee said:

Brown and Esensten did an all-time great arc with the Loving Murders which was (IMO, I know others disagree) uniquely rooted in that show's strange, sad family history and gothic sensibility (dating back to its dark pilot episode murder mystery with Lloyd Bridges and a chilling Geraldine Page) and situated as well at a moment where a handful of key young and/or Black characters could take off on ABC. Watching it all again for the first time since childhood during the housebound horrors of 2020 was one of the highlights of my soap viewer experience.

They spent the rest of their career chasing that high, and never really could replicate it. Not on The City (though my ex adored The Masquerade), not at PC where they went hogwild with horror, and definitely not on Paul Rauch's GL. But I do credit them for being key to re-populating AMC with a ton of Black characters, including past LOV/TC leads Debbi Morgan and Darnell Williams again, in the late 2000s, even if only a couple lasted beyond their merely so-so writing regime.

I wonder if due to the popularity of the Loving Murders if it would have been a better bet for ABC to keep the show branded as Loving and then just introduced new characters with the handful they were planning to keep in Corinth and just do a huge reboot of the show. It could have possibly prevented some of the loss of viewers that happened when the show was redone as The City.

For me, it's OLTL and the Billy Douglas/homophobia takes over Llanview story in the summer of 1992. It was so well-plotted out with a distinct arc for all the characters. Marty told the citizens of Llanview that Andrew was sexually involved with Billy (a nod to the movie "The Children's Hour") when he was just providing counsel to Billy who was struggling with revealing his sexuality. Andrew turned down Marty's advances and her revenge against him kickstarted a HUGE umbrella story where homophobia touched almost every character's life on the show. It's particularly amazing when you think this story was done 30 years ago, and I'm still surprised ABC approved it. The scenes where Billy comes out to everyone in Llanview while the AIDS memorial quilt comes to town were so moving. Since I was coming out at the same time, the story really impacted me more than any other TV storyline had before or has since.

2 minutes ago, victoria foxton said:

Good Lord!

 

It's so ridiculous I think we'll find out later it's someone in disguise for some reason.

1 hour ago, Faulkner said:

 

I like her too. I just don’t love that she seems like a Mary Sue. I’d love to see more of an edge emerge.

I just wish we didn't already know she'll be paired with Noah. The Newman-Abbott couplings need to stop. We need new blood, that especially aren't more Newmans, badly on this show.

1 minute ago, Faulkner said:

Wow, yes: “Thank you, Beth.” She later said “Traci.”

This is a show that recently left a watermark visible in the stock footage used in the opening credits, so I’m not surprised that it’s this sloppy.

That being said, I mostly like Allie so far. I do wish they would have brought Keemo back on, too. There's so many woman in that age range he could have been paired with!

I can't wait for this devil nonsense to finally be done.

I'm enjoying the Price family drama though.

Did anyone else hear Allie call Tracey "Beth" (the actress' name) today?

Somehow that got past editing!

2 hours ago, carolineg said:

So I don't think that's a crazy idea.  I don't know if a soap would ever do that, but that's sort of how I felt about how Chad/Sonny were playing the scenes.  Both were getting really mad about things that don't really matter much and they were being intense with one another.

I would watch EVERY SINGLE DAY if that happened, but I doubt they'll go there.

I think they want to hang onto Zach Tinker since he's been so popular, but they don't know what to do with him yet.

I was surprised to see that BD/Lucas is actually still on contract. He hasn't been on in ages unless they're saving his guarantee for Sami's return....

On 5/2/2022 at 8:16 PM, Khan said:

Well, it's a natural question, isn't it?  Especially when the storyline in question involves one of your show's leading heroine attacking people in the middle of the night while zonked out on over-the-counter sleep medication.  ("Where do you intend to go with this, Dena?")

And, that's what every good soap storyline should do...it leads you to the next story.

6 minutes ago, Antoyne said:

Psycho Phyllis ranting and raving about Diane will never work for me.

True....especially since Phyllis has done just as bad in the past. Hell, ran down Christine and Paul with her car.

I'm soooo over with the Devil. This should have ended in December. Now, it's just a cheap way to invent easy conflict for the characters like those never-ending masks swaps. No character development at all.

I love Gwen and the drama she causes. I think her story has lost a lot of steam along the way due to the actor's low guarantees (the whole cast). It's like a story gets up and running, and then we don't see it for weeks. It's hard to create momentum. I would stop with all the guest stars and just use that part of the budget to focus on the people who already are on contract. I'd include still using Julie, Doug, and Victor still though. They're important to the show.

There are also characters who are in a rut out at this point and need a rest...Rafe, Nicole, Ava, and Stefan. All good actors in played out characters. That budget could be used to bring in a couple of fresh characters and provide more episodes for other characters.

It's odd that they rarely play the Tripp and Ava relationship, too. It'd be a great way to inject his character with an actual personality. He's a good actor and deserves better.

Zach Tinker continues to be as cute a bug! They need to get him involved in a hot new story with another man if they're not going to recast Will.

I would LOVE for Christopher Sean to come back!